The World Is Yours (Pt.2)

The 2026/27 season is on its way. There’s no shortage of players who are ready to take that step up and have their names ringing around European football circles for the foreseeable. Here are some I think can do just that.

1. Othmane Maamma - Watford

Age - 20

Position - Left wing/right wing

Nation - Morocco

Height - 6ft

Foot - Right

Lionel Messi, Paul Pogba, Sergio Aguero... Othmane Maamma

Last October, Moroccan winger Othmane Maamma joined an esteemed list of World Cup u20 golden ball winners. 1 goal and 4 assists was what it took as Morocco trounced their way to getting their hands on their first ever u20 trophy. This was where Mammaa announced himself to the world and fans began to realise how special he might be.

In the 2025/26 season, a then 19 year old Maamma left Montpellier for Vicarage road with a rumoured £4 million being spent to require his signature. Maamma was unproven at this point. He had hardly any first-team minutes under his belt and so the move was seen as a risk.The Championship is an unforgiving, physical league which will chew you up and spit you out if you aren’t ready for the physical battle it warrants.

And so nobody was really expecting much from the young Moroccan winger whose name was only that - just another name. And low expectations are a great thing sometimes, because you can come in and blow people’s heads off straight away.

If you check Maamma’s 25/26 stats for Watford - you likely won’t be impressed. 4 goals and 1 assist in 25 games. Is that enough to warrant the praise he’s been given so far? Firstly, you can’t underestimate the level of the Championship. Especially for an inexperienced teenager who’s fresh off a move from France. At this point, you’re expected to struggle and take some time to adapt to the league, the country and everything else in between.

But for Maammaa this wasn’t necessary. After the u20 World Cup, he returned to England and wasted no time getting to work. Because although his output numbers don’t jump out, his performances on the eye might make you jump out… of your seat.

The Moroccan winger is as fearless as they come. Everytime he gets the ball, it’s the same thought that crosses his mind:

“How do I make something happen here?”

And luckily for Maamma, he has an infinite number of ways to do that. He doesn’t try to hide his abundance of skill. There’ll be flashy touches and pieces of skill in any performance. His trickery and the belief he has in himself to create something out of nothing on the pitch are his defining traits.

When he gets the ball out wide, he’s immediately facing forward, making a b-line for his marker’s dignity. He’ll throw in a few mesmeric stepovers and jink inside or he’ll back himself to beat you by brute athleticism and physicality on the outside and whip in a cross.

Also don’t sleep on the winger’s vision and passing ability. He has a good idea for defence-splitting passes and has the technique in his locker to carry them out successfully. Sometimes he won’t go straight at you. Instead he’s spotted something else and will play a cute trivial pass to open up a whole defence.

Sometimes he drifts in and out of matches and sometimes he dribbles a bit too much without care for winning the ball back. But he’s raw, of course he is - he’s not played that much senior football. But if this is his floor, it’s scary to imagine what Maamma’s ceiling could be.

At Watford, in the Championship - Maamma is guaranteed consistent minutes against fierce and physical defenders who’d like nothing more than to put him into row Z and that’s the best possible scenario right now for his development as he continues to learn on the job.

This season, this Watford side will be his to propel forward. Already showing more signs of improvement in pre-season, this will likely be the year Maamma turns from a hot prospect to one of the faces of the league.

Being able to perform in the Championship is a great indicator of future success. The 20 year old was one of the most exciting wingers in the league last season and he was only getting started. What he needs now, is to embrace the fact that he’s now the star man of this Watford outfit and add more consistency and goals to his game.

If he does that, he won’t be playing 2nd tier football again.

2. Eliesse Ben Seghir - Bayer Leverkusen

Age - 21

Position - Left Wing/Attacking Midfield

Nation - Morocco

Height - 5ft11

Foot - Right

Reminiscent of - Angel Di Maria

From one Moroccan who’s beginning to announce himself to the rest of the world to one who already has - and then disappeared from it’s view.

It’s nothing to hold against Ben Seghir that perhaps his career hasn’t taken off like many thought it would 24 months ago. Injuries and a confusing transfer to Leverkusen got in his way. And development isn’t linear after all. There was never a guarantee he’d carry on that same trajectory.

But for anyone who’s watched a good amount of the 21 year old, especially whilst he was at Monaco - it will be hard to shake the feeling of undeniable expectation that you have with him. And maybe we’re the problem for expecting something rather than quietly hoping - because expectation falls so hard on people’s shoulders.

But Eliesse Ben Seghir, to me, is a magnificent footballer. A footballer’s footballer. He’s a player that I guarantee Arsene Wenger would’ve tried his hardest to sign if he was kicking around in the same era.

That’s because Ben Seghir just generates football no matter where he is on the pitch. Is he a left winger or an attacking midfielder? Yes.

Players like Ben Seghir don’t really need to be confined to a set position. Just give them the ball and let them get on with it. He’s a really wriggly and nimble player blessed with great balance and close control. He can dribble out of a phonebox and has a wonderful right-foot privy to the odd screamer whilst also being very composed in the box.

Am I being hyperbolic? Maybe. Probably. But it’s hard not to be because he’s one of the first players who really moved me when I started watching football and young players more closely. It’s a situation where even in 5 years, if Ben Seghir is truly out of the limelight and fallen into anonymity - I’ll still be there banging the drum saying there’s still a chance he reaches football’s summit.

Not to say that’s what will happen. But there’s no getting away from the fact his stock has slightly fallen after a £20 million move to Leverkusen for ‘more gametime’ provided the exact opposite. Leverkusen signed about 4 more attackers after securing Ben Seghir’s signature and he dealt with niggling injuries throughout his first season there.

But now after a difficult year settling in, this could be his season to remind us of the talent he holds.

3. Remi Himbert - Lyon

Age - 18

Position - Centre-forward

Nation - France

Height - 5ft 10

Foot - Right

Over in central France, manager Paulo Fonseca is leading something akin to a youth revolution at Lyon. Last January saw the arrival of Endrick on loan and the Brazilian quickly swept up all the headlines. What was less known to those without a keen eye on French football was the sheer amount of youngsters from Lyon’s heralded academy that he would be joining.

Khalis Merah, Steve Kango, Mathys De Carvalho, Noham Kamara… All of them featured semi-regularly for an extremely young Lyon outfit who finished 4th in Ligue 1. However none of them left a stronger imprint in my brain than 18 year old forward Remi Himbert who only featured 11 times for the first team before being injured in mid-march.

In those 11 games, Himbert amassed 3 goals and 1 assist. And though most of those games were off the bench, it wasn’t the minute per goal contribution which stuck out to me - it was the nature of those contributions.

In the Coupe De France quarter final, Lyon were trailing Lens by two goals to nil. In the 59th minute they subbed on Himbert. In the 94th minute they were drawing 2-2. Himbert assisted one in the 67th minute and scored the other in extra time. And they were both brilliant pieces of play. The assist: A delightful dinked cross to the head of Yaremchuk on his weak foot. The goal: A wonderful chip over the keeper on the half volley in the dying embers of the game.

After that, I was fascinated. It takes such a level of composure to mischievously scoop the ball over the keeper in added time whilst you’re losing 2-1 - and it’s only your 9th game of senior football. That’s character. All the best players come alive in the big moments when their team needs them, Himbert doing this at 18 surprised me.

But he’s also a really good footballer. The 18 year old, no matter if he was starting games or coming off the bench, was never afraid to get the ball. He exuded confidence. His first touch was particularly noteworthy because of how assured and pinpoint it was almost every time.

He’s a striker by trade but found himself on the left wing on many occasions but it didn’t stifle him. He’d pick up the ball deep, take players on and link up with his teammates. He was also more than happy to shoot from distance and is really trigger happy - which I only see as a good thing for a young striker.

Though he didn’t even accumulate 500 minutes in total for Lyon, he did enough to leave a mark. And he did a lot of it out of position. It will be intriguing to see if he comes back with the same venom yet nonchalance in his game. It will be interesting to observe if he’s still taking liberties out of defenders and affecting games when he returns to Ligue 1.

If Himbert carries on where he left of before he got injured, you’ll be hearing his name a lot next season.

4. Mattia Liberali - Como

Age - 19

Position - Attacking Midfield

Nation - Italy

Height - 5ft 7

Foot - Left

Reminiscent of - David Silva

In football, there’s few tasks as unforgiving as being a young Italian player with bags of quality. Though times look like they’re on the precipice of changing as a result of Como and Fiorentina’s change in recruitment strategy, it has been proven time and time again that coming through in Italy as a youngster is extremely hard.

Serie A is the antithesis of Ligue 1 in the sense that youngsters are often shunned as a result of their inexperience. In some cases, young players are trusted but those are typically defenders who’ve already matured physically. Forwards, and in particular - smaller forwards really struggle to get their chance.

Instead they’re either loaned out or sold to sides in the Serie B or Serie C. And these divisions aren’t like their English equivalents. The drop off is stark. The level is miles below the Serie A and they’re notorious for its lack of onus on attacking football. Players often struggle to bounce back to the top after they’ve dropped down.

Mattia Liberali’s journey - although very much in its early stages, seemed like it had potential of following suit. A diminutive left-footed attacking midfielder who was once on the books at AC Milan, Liberali was sold to Catanzaro last season and though he impressed sporadically, he didn’t rip up too many trees.

But he was already a known quantity to those who pay attention to Italian youth football. Liberali was the star of the U17 Euros which Italy won. In a tournament which featured names such as Myles Lewis-Skelly, Ethan Nwaneri, Geovanny Quenda, Marc Bernal and Rodrigo Mora - Liberali walked away as the unanimous best player.

That’s because he’s magic. The ball sticks to him like glue. He has wonderful balance and a great centre of gravity which allows him to twist and turn on a dime. He’s your typical number 10 with brilliant vision and a wand of a left foot. Football can often be unkind to these sort of players but Como saw the market opportunity and signed Liberali for £6 million.

Now, under Cesc Fabregas, one of the most intelligent and creative midfielders of his generation - Liberali has the perfect mentor to see his potential through. Though he faces the tough task of competing with the enigmatic Nico Paz for game time, the fact Como are now in the Champions League and have ambitions to compete for the Scudetto means that rotation is imperative. Liberali will get his chance.

In a team where individuality and creativity is rewarded, Liberali is exactly where needs to be, where he should be. He’s already shown some spark in pre-season - now he just needs to put it together consistently and he’ll show the world just how good he is.

5. Patrick Zabi - Paris FC

Age - 19

Position - CM

Nation - Ivory Coast

Height - 6ft 3

Reminiscent of - Paul Pogba

Foot - Right

Sometimes you don’t need much, maybe 20 minutes, maybe 10, maybe even 5 minutes to know that you are watching something a bit different. That’s what I got with Patrick ‘Le Magie’ Zabi. Paris FC’s new record breaking signing standing at 6ft3 but with the grace and elegance of a swan

Last season the 19 year old was applying his trade in the French second division at Reims. Only 6 months later, Paris FC had seen enough to splurge nearly 30 million euros on the midfielder.

They saw what I saw. They saw what nearly everybody saw when you watch Patrick Zabi. That he’s pretty special.

His story started in Yopougan - a village in Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s biggest and most populous city. Like many young aspiring footballers in the Ivory Coast, it was on the streets where Zabi learnt his craft.

He was nicknamed ‘Zabi Le Magie’ as a child due to the things he could do with a football. He was said to have possessed magical dribbling abilities and inventive passing even at such a young age.His showcases were enough to earn him a move to Ivoire FC and soon after, Reims FC when he was 18.

We see a lot of tall, black midfielders labelled as the ‘new Pogba’ for no other reason than being tall and black. What we need to realise is that Paul Pogba is a once in a generation or two type of player who’s mix of physical prowess and mesmerising technical ability made him a one of one player

That being said, Patrick Zabi is the closest I’ve seen to matching up to the French in terms of that blend of size and skill. He’s not a defensive midfielder. Like Pogba, he thrives when he has the ball and switches off when he doesn’t.

Like Pogba he loves to dribble using the sole of his foot and drift to the left hand-side, masquerading as a makeshift winger at times.

It’s easy to know when you’re watching someone that has that extra something which separates the great players from the good ones. The way Patrick Zabi can just change gears so easily, going from a standstill to blitzing past two players like it’s nothing - it isn’t normal

There’s also the fact that he’s basically two-footed. Well, supposedly he’s right-footed but he can use his left foot extremely comfortably. Happy to shoot from range on it or try an audacious pass

Zabi can see - and do things that other players just can’t. He identifies the pictures very quickly and acts decisively. This is one of those players that can go as far as they want to. If their head is screwed on right, and they truly want to be the best - there’s no reason why they can’t be

Zabi basically has everything you’d want in a midfielder at nineteen. Now playing in Ligue 1, it will be very exciting to see how he reacts to a higher level.

First touch, immaculate. Second touch, probably better.